


Left Those Days

by acaelousqueadcentrum



Category: Rookie Blue
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 05:34:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5485490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acaelousqueadcentrum/pseuds/acaelousqueadcentrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Headcanon prompt: how they get back together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left Those Days

Gail waits.

And Gail sulks.

And Gail spends too many nights alone in her own company, drinking at first, and then increasingly and ever more painfully sober.

The ring, she finds by accident.   
Cleaning through a box of old memories and long-abandoned dreams. A lifetime ago when she was a child, innocent and no idea what life, what love had in store for her.

She’d almost laughed at it back then, a thin silver band, the tiniest little chip of a diamond. Now she feels guilty, now she wishes she’d been kinder. Now she wishes that she’d understood, how hard he’d tried.

She doesn’t even remember why she saved it, just the moment she’d ripped it off her finger in a breath of pure and broken rage.

Now, it doesn’t make her angry.

Now, it doesn’t even make her sad.

Not about him, anyway, not about the girl she was or the boy she’d thought she loved.

Instead, it makes her ache. Makes her mourn a choice she didn’t even know she could have made.

It makes her think of rich, soft, warm browns. It makes her remember the sound of her name on Holly’s lips, the feel of the older woman slipping back into bed with her after an early morning run.

It makes her wish things could be different. That she could have been the woman she was becoming that night at the bar with Holly, and not the woman she’s trying so hard to grow out of.

The ring, though–around her neck on patrol, in her pocket at the bar–it reminds her.

Nothing is set in stone.

~*~

The meteorologist had called for rain–all day–but not this, not this storm.

Gale-force winds battering against her door, rain hard against her windows.

She almost doesn’t hear the knocking.

But she can’t mistake the voice–

“Goddamnit, nerd, open the door!”

–or the soaking-wet siren with the icy-blue eyes on the other side of the door.

“Gail,” she stammers as the blonde shakes and shimmies and stamps in her front hall, water flying everywhere as she struggles to get herself out of her wet, wet gear.

And then loses her words entirely at the sight before her.

Gail, standing on the rug, stripped down to her bra and panties, and shivering in the cool air.

“Hey, doc,” the shorter woman snaps, forcing Holly out of her little trance, “I’ve got things to say–important things–but I’m a little cold and wet at the moment. Got a towel?”

Holly spurs into action, directing Gail to the bathroom, starting a hot bath, and discreetly dropping off some warm, dry clothes before bustling off to the kitchen to start some water for tea.

The words, when she knocks gently at the bathroom door with a steaming mug in hand, fall off her lips before she can stop them.

“Gail? Please confirm existence ….”

The door opens, and Gail appears. Damp, but no longer shivering with cold. Eyes warm and wet and amused.

And smiling.

God, Holly’d forgotten.

Gail’s still the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen.

“Don’t worry,” the blonde whispers, reaching out to take the tea, “still have all my hair.”

And it breaks the tension like nothing else could.

~*~

“I’m sorry,” Gail says as she sits cross-legged on the couch, facing Holly on the other end, and sips her tea. “I’m so sorry. I was trying to be better, but the fear slipped back in. And all the voices. And I let myself listen to them instead of you. I’m so sorry, Holly.”

It’s sincere, and it’s beautiful, and it brings tears to Holly’s eyes. Because she knows exactly what Gail is telling her. The depth of meaning beneath the words.

“I found this,” she continues, and holds out the small band with the single stone. “It’s the ring Nick proposed with. I’ve been carrying it around with me the past few weeks, thinking about things–the past, the future, you–”

And even Holly is not prepared for how her breath catches with that last word.

“I love you, Holly. I love you in ways I didn’t even know existed. One day, I want to marry you. To promise you forever.”

Holly begins to cry, watching as Gail turns the ring over and over again between her fingers.

“One day I’m going to give you a ring and ask,” Gail continues, her eyes warm and her touch gentle. “And the ring, it’s going to be everything you deserve.”

She takes a breath.

“But until then, I want you to have this. To keep it safe. Because this ring, Holly? This ring is everything I was. And everything I don’t want to be anymore. Because you deserve so much better–because I deserve so much better.”

Still, the brunette can’t breathe, can’t move, can’t even be certain her heart is still beating.

Because Gail is telling her everything she’s been dreaming of hearing since that first moment their bodies collided in the wet, wet woods.

Everything she wants is sitting before her, holding out a promise, asking her to have faith, to take it.

“You’re my future, Holly,” Gail whispers, and the older woman’s trance breaks.

With a happy sob she lunges forward to capture the blonde’s lips with her own.

She doesn’t need the words.

The answer is always going to be yes.

~*~

Later, they lay together on the floor of the living room, throw messily pulled over their bodies, as the light of day slips further and farther away.

“What’s Nick going to say when he finds out you proposed with his ring,” Holly teases, breath ghosting over Gail’s neck as she holds out her hand to watch the little stone twinkle in the dim light.

She can feel the rumble of Gail’s laugh against her chest.

“I didn’t propose,” Gail teases and bites playfully at the soft muscle on the inside of Holly’s outstretched arm. “I pre-proposed. I put a down-payment on it. You’re in layaway, doc.”

“Hmmmm,” Holly answers, pressing her lips along the sharp line of Gail’s shoulder, “and Nick?”

“Said the ring was more like spoils of war. Gave us his blessing. Smacked my ass and said ‘Go get 'em, tiger,’ as I left the locker room,” she answers with a laugh, tilting her head back to catch Holly for a kiss. “So don’t you worry about Soldier Boy, he’ll be fine.”


End file.
